


slow roam

by insomniacjams



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: 5+1 Things, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-25
Updated: 2014-04-25
Packaged: 2018-01-20 17:57:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1519922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insomniacjams/pseuds/insomniacjams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>five times Tyler left Jamie behind, and the one time he didn't.</p><p>Tyler is a vagabond, Jamie travels, and at what point does running into each other around the world stop being an accident?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Victoria, Canada

**Author's Note:**

> timeline is definitely not true to life, nor are these events.  
> I've only been to some of these places, so they may be inaccurately represented - let me know if anything needs to be fixed.
> 
> Slow Roam is a song by Polar Bear Club.
> 
> unbeta'd as per usual. just a little thing I wrote for fun.

They meet in a 24-hour pizza joint that makes their crust thick and dripping with grease. There are four seats by the window that are empty; he sits beside Jamie and his friends and says, "Hi, I'm Tyler. Can you tell me where the party's at?" 

Jamie doesn't party – that isn't to say he doesn’t know where the party is, but he doesn't like going out at all. He usually stops by to say hello, and if he's not looking for a one night stand, he'd rather go home and curl up in bed with a movie. 

That night, he goes to the liquor store with Tyler and points out the cheapest beer – Lucky lager – and takes him the long way, through the city centre and along the harbour, to the party. "You aren't from around here, are you?" Jamie asks, but he knows. Victoria's a small place; he'd remember a face like Tyler's.

"I'm just passing through," Tyler says.

Jamie drinks seven beers and takes Tyler home; he gives Tyler his bed, and passes out on the couch. When he wakes up, the whiteboard in his kitchen says "Thank you" and Tyler is gone.


	2. Helsinki, Finland

Jamie likes representing his country; he likes wearing the red and white, the maple leaf, and pretending he feels something more than apathy about his homeland. He pretends well, because in truth, Jamie doesn't think Canada is anymore his home than Dallas. He's grown accustomed to the southern hospitality now, and Victoria seems a world away.

But Helsinki is a world away from Dallas as well. Everything looks so new, so different, as it always is walking through a new place for the first time. They're advertising the tournament, and there are giant inflatable hockey players decorating the square by the bus station.

In the corner, there's an art exhibit in a place called "The Black Box" which is just that – it is a box, very portable, very black, and only big enough to hold a desk and five people at most. There are photographs all over the walls, initialed "TS" at the bottom in a neat script.

"Jamie," Tyler says with a pleasant smile, "it's good to see you again."

"You too," Jamie says, and then he gives Tyler two tickets to the game against Sweden that night.

They win, 3 – 1.

Tyler shows up alone; he comes to the after party alone too, only a large bottle of Russian vodka for company. "I got this when I was in St. Petersburg," he tells Jamie, taking a swig. "It's the cheapest vodka they had, I think. My Russian's not very good but I do know the word for cheap, or I did, before I got this drunk."

They spend the night in Jamie's hotel room; Tyler sleeps in the bathtub, passing out with his cheek pressed against the cold porcelain. When Jamie checks out of the hotel to catch his flight the next morning, Tyler is gone.


	3. Berlin, Germany

"Well, I never thought I'd see you again," Tyler grinds up against Jamie's back in the club. Jamie doesn't know the name, but Jordie had dragged him here to chase some girl he wanted to bed a while back and Jamie had lost him in the crowd.

They stand out here, coloured shirts vibrant in the sea of black. There's some goth rock band on stage belting out lyrics in broken English about suicide and the weather; Jamie wishes he had another drink, or earplugs. He doesn't have a map either – doesn't know how to get back to the hotel.

So he dances with Tyler until they get tired and sweaty, and the music is replaced by something much harsher, something that drives them outside into the sticky night air. It's nearing three AM and they stumble their way to Alexanderplatz.

"That's so tall," Tyler drawls, pointing up at the TV tower. "I bet you can touch the stars from up there."

"I'm a Star," Jamie laughs, too drunk, his words slurring. "You can touch me instead." 

"Okay," Tyler says.

Jamie wakes up when Jordie stumbles in just past nine in the morning, vomits on the floor, and falls face first onto his bed. Jamie isn't surprised the sheets are all puddled on the floor, and Tyler is gone (along with the courtesy soaps provided by the hotel).


	4. Beijing, China

Jamie goes to China for a wedding; it's his distant cousin, but he can afford it and he has the time off – he's always wanted to go to Asia. His cousin is marrying a beautiful Chinese woman with a name he can neither spell nor pronounce. 

Her family doesn't speak a word of English but they're all loud and boisterous, talking over each other until the words (are they words?) all meld together. Jamie sits back and enjoys it, chatting casually with a distant relative of his cousin's now wife, one of the few who knows a few words of English.

He's in the airport on his way home, stomach heavy from all the food he'd eaten the past week, muscles sore and dreading the twelve hour flight back to Victoria for the rest of his summer, and dying in the sweltering heat. 

He's exiting the bathroom in the airport lobby waiting to check in when he crashes into Tyler. His suitcase topples, and Tyler hurries to drag it upright, apologizing profusely until he looks up, then stops, mid-sentence. 

"Oh, it's you."

"Looks like it," Jamie says, dragging words from his foggy brain, like he can't even think of a good comeback. He's thankful he doesn't have to be on the ice; if he can't talk to Tyler like this, there's no way he could spit a good chirp at an opposing team. 

"You awake?"

"Yeah," Jamie chokes out; Tyler looks good – he's wearing a suit and tie, dressed to the nines, his hair neatly swept away from his eyes though it's getting longer now – longer than the last time they saw each other at any rate. "Where are you going?"

"Mongolia," Tyler says. "I know a guy who lives in the mountains out there. I'm going to help look after his goats for a bit."

"Oh, that sounds fun. What are you doing in China?"

"Just passing through from Nagoya, in Japan," Tyler flashes a smile. He doesn't ask about Jamie. "Have you got time?"

"I got a bit," Jamie says, glancing at the clock. 

Tyler speaks to the girl at the front desk of the hotel in Mandarin and Jamie has no idea what kind of filth came out of his mouth, or that he spoke another language to begin with. They kiss against the door, bodies hot and heavy.

"We're on a tight schedule," Tyler says. "I can't miss my flight."

Jamie can afford to buy him a new one if he does, but he doesn't say that. Instead, he says, "I can't miss mine either."

But he forgets to set an alarm, and when he wakes up, the window is open letting a cloud of city smog into the room, the air conditioner is making a rattling noise, and Tyler is gone.

Jamie misses his flight by forty minutes.


	5. Cancun, Mexico

The beach is hot; Jamie likes the beach most of the time – he likes baking until he's red as a lobster, pushing his toes into the sand, and watching the waves crash on the shore until he gives in to the urge of throwing his whole body under the warm ocean waters.

He doesn't like the beach so much when his best friend is kissing his wife, and Jordie is kissing his fiancé… On either side of him. Jamie tugs his sunglasses on, leaves his hat low on his face, and tries to focus on his book (it doesn't work). 

"You look like you need a saviour," Tyler says, holding out his hand to help Jamie up. Jamie leaves his towel behind to run through the waves, chasing and dunking Tyler until they're both drenched, hair dripping down their shoulders and their backs.

The resort glistens off in the distance. "Do you have a room?" Jamie asks, and Tyler shakes his head. 

"I snuck in." Jamie laughs, loud, his head thrown back, because of course he did.

They steal food from the buffet on their way upstairs – Jamie has sand in the worst places; behind his ears, under his nails, and creeping under the waistband of his swim trunks. He doesn't care. They eat chocolate cake and lobster from paper plates on the floor of Jamie's room until the sun sets.

They share a shower later, washing the smell of ocean from their bodies, and leaving something else in its wake – the scent of each other. Jamie likes to think that when Tyler creeps out of bed before Jamie's completely asleep that he's leaving with the scent of Jamie's cologne on his skin.


	6. Plus One: Dallas, USA

The arena is alive, the crowd pulsing with the thrill of the conference title. "We're going to the Stanley Cup Final!" Jordie yells; his voice echoes through the locker room, and there are hugs all around. Jamie is already sweaty again after his shower, just trying to catch a breather after leaving the media madness, when he leaves the locker room.

This time, it can't be a coincidence.

Tyler's there, leaning against the wall in a faux-leather jacket and dress shirt with the buttons on wrong. His jeans are too short and his ears are a bit red, because he's being chatted up by some WAG Jamie still can't put a name to though she's been to a few functions.

Jamie's not surprised anymore. "Let's go," he tells Tyler, his voice rough from the yelling, his body tired from the game. 

"Show me some of this southern hospitality they speak of," Tyler rumbles into Jamie's ear, and his whole body shivers like he's been electrocuted.

"I'm too tired, but I can do food," Jamie says, and Tyler agrees, letting Jamie lead him to the vehicle, and drive across town to Jamie's favourite late-night eatery. They order greasy burgers that break Jamie's diet worse than he's allowed himself all season, and talk about Tyler's last months since they'd seen each other.

"I went south after Mexico," Tyler says. "I went and saw some really good punk bands that didn't speak English, but they got me caught up in some riot and most of them were arrested that night, so I went to Brazil for a while. Did you know there's some real danger out there for women alone at night in Brazil?"

Tyler babbles for a long time, and lets Jamie nod sleepily at him. That night, Jamie takes him home to his apartment, too empty since Jordie moved out – Tyler fills the space the same way tissue paper fills a gift bag.

"I'm too tired," Jamie insists as Tyler tucks them into bed.

"It's okay," Tyler says softly. "We can in the morning, if you want."

"I do," Jamie says, eyes already shut. 

And he does, because in the morning, Tyler is there; his feet are cold from poor circulation and his hands are callused from hours of blue collar work. His eyes are wise from years of travelling the word, but his heart is thumping heavily in his chest, nervous, like it's their first time though there'd been times before.

Jamie can see Tyler's eyes steady; he can feel his heartbeat slow. "We can take our time," Jamie offers, kissing him slow and steady.

"How slow can you go?" Tyler asks, ducking his head shyly and pushing his body against Jamie, searching for his warmth and security.

Jamie holds Tyler close, strokes his hair, and breathes his air. "As long as you will stay."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading :)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] slow roam](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2105865) by [Readbyanalise010](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Readbyanalise010/pseuds/Readbyanalise010)




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